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Remember last year when I was ranting and raving about the cake-pop and how it would be the biggest thing in wedding desserts since cupcakes stole the show about three years ago? Well, turns out I was right. Not only that – this little gem has inspired many to start an entire business catering to and serving only cake pops.

For those of you who missed my introduction last February to the darling of the dessert world, I would like to introduce you to the ” Cake- Pop”. For those of you who were with me while I extolled the virtues of the delightful smidgen of cake on a stick, lets re-familiarize ourselves with the cake-pop.

Cake Pops were ‘invented’ in 2011 by a woman who goes by the name ‘Bakerella’. On her website you will see a very happy young woman who says she was inspired to start blogging about her baking attempts after taking a cake decorating class. I saw her website, I hope she got an A+. Maybe she didn’t invent them but she certainly is credited with bringing them into everyday conversation and to wedding sweet tables everywhere . Thank you, Bakerella.

In my quest to find out everything there is to know about cake pops I found that there are two different kinds:

1) Traditional cake-pops are made by crumbling an entire cake with some frosting into a bowl, smashing it into balls, inserting a popsicle or lollipop stick and dipping in hardening chocolate.

2) The newer version of the cake pop is made with a special baking pan that you fill with cake batter and cover with th accompanying lid that completes the sphere to bake a perfect circle every time. Insert stick, dip in chocolate and voila!

Of course cake-pops are not intended to replace the traditional wedding cake (but you could), they are adding another layer of deliciousness and pizazz to the sweet table (which they will). You can dip them in all kinds of toppings, sprinkles or have a great time decorating them. They are small and easy to work with, because they are on a stick and they are just the right shape. No mess, no fork, no plate, these little wonders will have you wondering…. what will they come up with next?

-Penny Frulla for Bridal Expo Chicago

It was just last year that the biggest trend on wedding sweet tables and at receptions was the cupcake. The cupcake was the hippest, hottest must-have for weddings in 2011 and I thought there couldn’t possibly be anything more fun or festive for a wedding sweet table. Guess what? I was dead wrong. I would like to introduce you to the ” Cake- Pop”.

Take a good look at this sweet little gem, you are going to be seeing a lot of it.

Cake Pops were ‘invented’ in 2011 by a woman who goes by the name ‘Bakerella’. On her website you will see a very happy young woman who says she was inspired to start blogging about her baking attempts after taking a cake decorating class. I saw her website, I hope she got an A+. Maybe she didn’t invent them but she certainly is credited with bringing them into everyday conversation and to wedding sweet tables everywhere . Thank you, Bakerella.

In my quest to find out everything there is to know about cake pops I found that there are two different kinds:

1) Traditional cake-pops are made by crumbling an entire cake with some frosting into a bowl, smashing it into balls, inserting a popsicle or lollipop stick and dipping in hardening chocolate.

2) The newer version of the cake pop is made with a special baking pan that you fill with cake batter and cover with th accompanying lid that completes the sphere to bake a perfect circle every time. Insert stick, dip in chocolate and voila!

Of course cake-pops are not intended to replace the traditional wedding cake (but you could), they are adding another layer of deliciousness and pizazz to the sweet table (which they will). You can dip them in all kinds of toppings, sprinkles or have a great time decorating them. They are small and easy to work with, because they are on a stick and they are just the right shape. No mess, no fork, no plate, these little wonders will have you wondering…. what will they come up with next?

Many couples are opting for smaller, more intimate gatherings where their dollars are spent on quality vs. quantity; having a luxurious, lavish affair for 75 people rather than a cookie cutter convention for 350 people. The problem is, where do you draw the line?

Make your guest ‘wish’ list and decide on the exact cut off number. This list is the closest people in your life, the people you cannot live without. Decide immediately if you will be able to allow single guests to bring a date or parents to bring their children, stick to your guns and be prepared to have to defend this decision. These are people who have been with you for your whole life, people who will be there forever and ever, not co-workers or bosses or recent neighbors.

From the beginning, tell anyone who asks that you are planning a small, intimate gathering. This will prevent most from asking if they are invited. Be polite and tell them honestly, ” Jason and I have decided to have a small wedding and we will only be inviting family and our closest friends.” Of course, this means you should not be constantly talking about wedding plans to co-workers who are uninvited, save the juicy details for the maid of honor or your sibling. Remember, if you are having pre-wedding parties, they are restricted to invited guests only. Can’t invite people to a bridal shower and not invite them to a wedding, after all.

Keep the wedding party small. There is no hard and fast rule for this but, if the guest total is 75, stay with one or two attendants. Kate Middleton had only one bridesmaid and her wedding was enormous, keep that in mind.

The benefits of a smaller wedding are many; you can spend more money on things that really matter to you like an exclusive location, maginficent meal, extraordinary flowers, glamorous gown, extravagant shoes, elaborate invitations, A-list photographer and a sumptuous sweet table. In the end it truly is a matter of quality versus quantity.

As hard as it may seem to believe, a lot of companies get their online reviews from within. If you have read this blog before, you know that I am the ultimate skeptic and that an online review to me means about as much to me as the paper on which I will never print it. In this case, my skepticism pays off. A September report by the Pew Research Institute indicates that 58% of consumers purchase goods and services from the internet based in their online reviews. This was right about the same time the New York Times uncovered the truth about online reviews, exposing several companies who admitted to reviewing themselves repeatedly. Oddly enough one such company actual gave their company scathing reviews in order to improve their Google search results, and it worked.

As hard as it seems, fake online reviews have gotten so out of control that the government is about to step in and figure out how to handle this growing problem. Until then, here are some guidelines to help you figure out how to spot a fake review when selecting professionals to service your wedding:

Name – Including the first and last name of the reviewer are not a guarantee that it is an actual person but, it greatly increases the odds. Generally online names like Bob234 are either automated programs or insiders trying to hide their identity. More information about the reviewer means more credibility. Also check to see if this one name has several reviews on the same site or on other sites. Multiple postings is a sign that something is not right.

Date and Number – Check to see if there are swarms of reviews around the same date and for the same product or service. Clever marketers hire people to do product reviews based on a number of things like seasonal purchasing and promotional dates.

Description – A description that sounds too good to be true probably is. Glowing recommendations are fine but, sometimes they go a bit too far and seem (what’s the word?) … phony. Also be careful of descriptions that are too technical to be from an average consumer point of view, they are probably not.

Links – If there is a link in the review, it is a fake. It is being used to drive you back to the original site.

Negative – Be careful of a negative review even if it seems legitimate since disgruntled ex-employees are notorious for going online; ranting and raving within the confines of a pseudonym. You could be passing up the best bridal salon in Chicago based on a sketchy review you read online.

When in doubt, check it out. The best and only reliable way to ensure that your wedding vendors are A+ or D- is to do your own research. Meet face-to-face with each and every vendor and when you do, ask them for referrals. Ask for samples or examples of their work. Call previous customers who have used this service and find out firsthand about their experience. If you want to take it a step further, ask if you can attend one of their events and then you can decide for yourself. When it comes to your wedding, you only have one shot to make it right and leaving your decision-making to reviews posted online is risky, at best.

Last week we unveiled one of the wedding trends that began developing in 2011 and will most likely continue into 2012 is downsizing. Many couples (not just those with budget restrictions) are opting for smaller, more intimate gatheringe where their dollars are spent on quality vs. quantity; having a luxurious, lavish affair for 75 people rather than a 350 person sit down dinner. The problem is, where do you draw the line?

How to keep your small affair a small affair:

1) Make your guest ‘wish’ list and decide on the exact cut off number. This list is the closest people in your life, the people you cannot live without. Decide immediately if you will be able to allow single guests to bring a date or parents to bring their children, stick to your guns and be prepared to have to defend this decision.

2) From the beginning, tell anyone who asks that you are planning a small, intimate gathering. This will prevent most from asking if they are invited. Be polite and tell them honestly, ” Jason and I have decided to have a smaller wedding and we will only be inviting family and our closest friends.” Of course, this means you should not be constantly talking about wedding plans to co-workers who are uninvited, save the juicy details for the maid of honor or your sibling.

3) Be prepared to get some flak. Some people will a) not think this is a great idea and b) be offended they are not invited. This is your celebration, it is your choice to handle it as you see fit. Whatever reason they give you for their dissenting opinion – ignore them.

4) As soon as you have whittled the guest list to the desired number, find and book your location. Once you have secured your location, everything will begin to fall in place and any negative feedback will be drowned out by the beauty of what you can accomplish for the same amount of money.

5) Keep the wedding party small. There is no hard and fast rule for this but, if the guest total is 75, stay with one or two attendants. Kate Middleton had only one bridesmaid and her wedding was enormous, keep that in mind.

The benefits of a smaller wedding are many; you can spend more money on things that really matter to you like an exclusive location, maginficent meal, extraordinary flowers, glamorous gown, elaborate invitations, A-list photographer and a sumptuous sweet table. In the end it truly is a matter of quality versus quantity.

I love it when I open my email and someone re-cants story that happened and I know before I finish the first line how it is going to end! When the story has been repeated so many times that people begin to actually think it is true. Of course the details change slightly but, everyone knows the end result…. Urban Legend. Where do these things get their start? Some urban legends are like fables and they have an underlying moral; the hair braid legend is to remind parent’s to wash their kids hair at least once a week. Some are made up from what people secretly wish happened; Donald Trump pays off their mortgage. Some are purely mean-spirited; Barack Obama’s birth certificate is fake. And some some are just pure entertainment; the pregnant turkey comes to mind. Whatever the occasion, there is an urban legend to delight everyone. Since today is Friday 13th I am sharing my favorite wedding urban legends with gamophiles everywhere.

The Fatal Tan is a horrid tale of vanity and stupidity. A bride feels she is too pale to look good for her wedding so she goes to several tanning salons every day for the maximum allottedtime at each salon. On the fifth day she is found dead, it seems her organs sunburned from the inside. It is important to note that in some versions of this story the bride is described as a blonde at this exact point in the story… for reasons I am not quite sure. The moral of the story is not to be tan, or not to be vain, or not to be blonde, I guess.

Bride and Seek is not a pleasant story, either. The bride and groom engage in a game of hide and seek at their reception which is being held in a barn, warehouse or wherever and the bride cannot be found. The groom is furious but move son with his life. After a few weeks she is found in an old trunk. She was inebriated, knocked unconscious and died. This is the kind of story you make up to remind the bride and groom not to drink too much. I feel it leaves a lot of unanswered questions: Who has a wedding reception in an abandoned barn or warehouse? Why was someone cleaning an abandoned barn or warehouse? If the maid found her in a trunk, why couldn’t the groom or the guests find her?

Rice at Weddings is another gruesome tale (I’m seeing a pattern, here). Supposedly written by an actual photographer at an actual wedding who saw this first-hand. While at a wedding snapping pictures of the couple leaving the church as all the guests were throwing rice, the photographer immediately noticed red spots appeared on the bride’s gown. He was able to capture the look of horror on the guest’s faces as nearby birds began ingesting the rice and immediately exploding. Okay, where are the pictures and what kind of rice was it? Exploding rice? Everyone who thinks this is true raise your hand. Everyone put your hands down.

Last but not least – the king or queen of all wedding legends is the Clemson/Mastercard/Disgruntled Bride or Groom legend.You see this legend has enough power to spread from the bride to the groom effortlessly. It can be in Clemson University or anywhere. It can take on a life of its own and be either before, during or after the actual wedding and could also apparently be used for a Mastercard commercial. The most popular version is during the reception, by the groom at Clemson University. Here goes: A man and woman are married in a lavish ceremony (maybe at Clemson, maybe not) and after (or during) the wedding the groom (or bride) stands up and thanks everyone for coming and informs them that there is a special gift for them taped under their seat. Everyone has received a manila envelope with 8×10 glossy photos of the bride with the best man or (groom with the maid of honor) in various stages of undress, obviously having an affair. The Mastercard version ends with the tag line: Priceless. I think you get it.

I saved the best for last. This is a brand new one and you may not have even seen or heard this. I came across the ROYAL wedding photo hoax three days after the Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. It is well-done, even though the pictures are rather fuzzy it renders the feeling of an artsy wedding photo. Not terribly well thought out since the gown, cake and not much else is a match but, adding the Corgis was an especially nice touch. I will go out on a limb and say the Queen of England and Elton John did not engage in a conga line but, if these pictures are not hilarious, I will eat my words!